The Surgery, Physiology and Immunohistopathology Core (Core C), which will be used by all of the[unreadable] Projects of this PPG, will offer integrated services for assessing heart function and structure in settings that[unreadable] mimic cardiac pathology in mice. Accordingly, Core C will house and maintain the equipment and provide[unreadable] the staff necessary to offer Project Leaders and other PPG personnel the following services:[unreadable] 1) Surgery: in vivo myocardial infarction and transaortic constriction,[unreadable] 2) Physiology: echocardiography, Langendorff and working mouse hearts,[unreadable] 3) Immunohistopathology: state-of-the-art confocal fluorescent microscopic imaging of heart and myocyte[unreadable] structure, and cellular locations of signaling molecules in mouse heart sections and cultured cells.[unreadable] The Physiology, Surgery and Immunohistopathology Core, Core C, will be centrally located in the recently[unreadable] completed SDSL) BioScience Center, which houses the SDSU Heart Institute labs and administrative offices.[unreadable] Core C is composed of fully equipped surgery and physiology suites, dedicated mouse holding rooms, a[unreadable] complete tissue histology lab and a state-of-the-art confocal microscopy imaging facility. PPG investigators[unreadable] at all three institutions, as well as the live-cell imaging center in the Cell Biology Core, will be able to connect[unreadable] to the Core C imaging facility via an open microscopy environment (OME). The OME will optimize image[unreadable] data analysis, transfer and storage for all 5 of the PPG projects, as well as facilitating the integration of fixed[unreadable] sample imaging in Core C with live-cell imaging in Core B. An additional advantage of Core C is that it[unreadable] adjoins the SDSU Heart Institute Mouse Genetics Center, which facilitates the generation and use of[unreadable] genetically modified mice by all of the PPG projects. Core C was designed specifically to serve this multiinstitutional[unreadable] PPG; accordingly, it will maximize collaborations between projects, thus enhancing the synergy[unreadable] of this integrated research program. Core C complements and integrates with Core B by providing the ideal[unreadable] venue for examining cellular structure at the microscopic level, and by serving as the location where[unreadable] principles discovered using cells generated in the Cell Biology Core can be examined in a pathophysiological[unreadable] context that mimics the in vivo setting.